Rams girls hang on to win 1st game in new gym

A new era in Maricopa High School basketball opened on Friday night, as the girls basketball team played host to Goodyear Estrella Foothills in the first game in the school’s new gym. Despite faltering a bit in the second half, the Rams hung on and christened the new building with a hard-fought 56-53 victory in the opening round of the 3A state playoffs.

Amanda Hamm scored 16 points for Maricopa. Dee Streety added 11 points, Brittany Parks scored 10 and Erin Litchfield had eight for the Rams, who moved a step closer to their goal of a state title.

“It’s always nice to get a win,” coach Jen Miller said. “But we were really hoping it wasn’t going to happen like this.”

The Rams jumped out to an early lead, winning the opening tip and scoring on a 3-point shot by Hamm. They followed it up with another 3-pointer a few moments later, and it appeared that all of the makings for a route were in order. But the Wolves fought back and put up some key stops to keep the score close. The Rams were forced to adjust after Streety picked up an early second foul and had to sit out. Her replacement, the normally prolific Julia Dickerson, was coming off a bought with strep throat and had seen limited practice time over the past week. She finished the game with five points, four rebounds and two assists.

“Julia was lost out there,” Miller said. “She just wasn’t able to make the adjustments she needed to because she wasn’t at practice to hear what we told the girls to do.”

Despite these setbacks, the Rams were able to wrap up the first quarter with a 20-10 lead.

The Wolves continued to build on the momentum they established late in the first quarter and narrowed the gap. A foul on Parks in early in the quarter proved a major turning point in the momentum of the half. Parks hit the bench, and without her presence at point guard, the Rams lacked the speed they normally have to push the ball upcourt. The Wolves took advantage, outscoring the Rams 13-10 in the quarter, which shaved Maricopa’s lead to seven points at the half.

Early in the third quarter, Estrella Foothills completely switched its defensive strategy, moving away from a standard half-court offense to a full-court press. The ploy worked as they began to force Rams turnovers, and Maricopa didn’t help matters by making some unforced miscues as well. The breakdowns allowed the Wolves to claw their way back into the game and they trailed by just four points, 41-37, at the end of the third.

“We made some freshman mistakes out there. Most of them under our own basket,” Miller said.

It looked as though the Rams might be able to recover early in the fourth quarter. The return of Parks to the lineup found the Rams able to use their speed to break the pressure defense of the Wolves, rattling off four unanswered points to start the quarter. But the Wolves kept chipping away at the lead, bringing it down to just one point with only 4:20 remaining in the game.

But the Rams got some key free throws for Parks and Streety down the stretch to ice the game. The Rams shot only 14 of 29 from the charity stripe for the entire game, but the pair hit clutch shots when needed. When Streety took a charge on the final Wolves’ possession, the coaches, players, and fans were able to breathe a sigh of relief in the spacious new gym, which sports twice the capacity of the old one, with a seating capacity of about 1,800.

Miller pointed to the tenacity of her team as the biggest reason for the victory.

“It says something about the kids I have,” she said. “When it really counted, they dug down deep and got the job done. They got the win, and they get to play as a team again.”

The second-seeded Rams will next host seventh-seeded Chinle at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28, in the second round. Chinle defeated Wickenburg in the first round of playoff action.

Photo by David Vargas